Kings beat Flyers 2-1 in shootout

January 4, 2009 2:08:04 PM PST

LOS ANGELES (AP) - January 4, 2009 --

For someone who had never faced a penalty shot or competed in an NHL shootout, 22-year-old Jonathan Quick did quite a fine job against the Philadelphia Flyers. Quick stopped 31 shots and turned aside a penalty shot by Scott Hartnell, leading the Los Angeles Kings to a 2-1 victory on Saturday night. He has a 0.79 goals-against average in five starts since giving up five goals at Detroit on Dec. 20, and has stopped all but four of 132 shots during this stretch - that includes two shutouts.

"They had some good chances, but the defense played well in front of me, let me see all the shots and cleared out all the rebounds. That made it a bit easier," Quick said. "The whole team worked hard and deserved to win."

Rookie Wayne Simmonds had a power-play goal for the Kings. Patrick O'Sullivan and Dustin Brown scored in the shootout against Antero Niittymaki, who made 30 saves to help Philadelphia gain a point that put them in sole possession of the Atlantic Division lead.

The Kings, coming off their sixth shutout loss of the season, tied it at 16:05 of the second period when Simmonds scored on a screened wrist shot from the top of the left circle with one second left on Braydon Coburn's penalty.

In the shootout, Quick stopped shots by Carter and Mike Richards. O'Sullivan and Brown beat Niittymaki with shots high to the glove side.

Quick stopped shots by Carter and Mike Richards at the other end.

"Jonathan's been solid since he's been called up, and tonight was no different," Brown said. "He made some big saves in regulation. You look at the shootout and you've got the leading goal scorer in the league and a pretty good shooter in Mike Richards, so Jonathan answered the bell for us."

Hartnell opened the scoring at 3:01 of the second period with his 15th goal after a turnover behind the net by defenseman Matt Greene. It came moments after Quick stopped Jeff Carter on a breakaway.

Quick, playing at home for the first time since goalie Jason LaBarbera was traded to Vancouver, got a huge break about 11½ minutes in when he fanned on a seemingly harmless 45-foot wrist shot to the glove side by defenseman Randy Jones and the puck hit the right post.

Hartnell was awarded his penalty shot at 18:20 of the first period after he was taken down from behind by rookie defenseman Drew Doughty. But Quick, playing in his 10th NHL game, forced Hartnell to his backhand. The puck went high and wide on the glove side.

"Quick has done very well in all the games he has played," Kings coach Terry Murray said. "He did a great job and it's a confidence booster. I can't speak for him, but I can imagine that he is feeling pretty good about himself and the way he played tonight. But he has to stay grounded because he has development ahead of him."

Philadelphia played its second straight game without second-leading scorer Simon Gagne, who injured his shoulder Tuesday at Vancouver. Also missing from the lineup were Joffrey Lupul and rookie Claude Giroux, who were injured during the third period of Friday night's 5-4 shootout win at Anaheim.

"We were short-handed, and we've been losing guys left and right," defenseman Kimmo Timonen said. "That's part of the game and we were talking about that before the game - that we have to go out there and do our jobs no matter who is in the lineup. I thought we played a pretty good game."

Giroux was elbowed in the head by Ducks forward Corey Perry, who was assessed a double-minor penalty for his actions and then received a four-game suspension from the NHL.

"We're missing a lot of guys," coach John Stevens said. "We asked huge minutes of some of these guys and we did everything but win the hockey game. We had plenty of chances. Jeff Carter had one of the most dominating performances I've seen all year even though he didn't get the puck in the net. We're really proud of the effort there and it turned out to be big point for us."

Notes: Carter, whose 27 goals tie him with Alex Ovechkin for the league lead, has played consecutive games without a recording a point for the first time since a three-game drought Nov. 6-11. ... Murray, in his first season as Kings coach, was 118-64-30 in his three seasons behind the Flyers bench. He guided them to the 1997 Stanley Cup finals, where they were swept by Detroit. ... The Kings, playing before their fifth sellout crowd of the season, had lost their previous seven home games that had sold out. ... The Kings have won their first game of a calendar year four years in a row. ... ... Niittymaki beat the Kings 4-3 with 23 saves in his only other start against them, Nov. 16, 2006, in Los Angeles. ... The Flyers, who came in with the league's second-best power play, were 0-for-3. ... Philadelphia has gone five games without scoring in the third period. The Flyers were blanked in the first period for the first time in six games.